At a time when league tables can be everything, examination grades matter. Perhaps more than many would admit, the cost is a lack of understanding. The new edition of this book provides practical advice about how to support understanding in both children and adults. It is for all teachers and lecturers, experienced or otherwise, who want learners…

Jane E. Pollock, coauthor of "Classroom Instruction That Works," expands on the bestseller's feedback strategy in this groundbreaking work. While feedback is not a new concept, what is new is using it the way children use computer apps--to set goals, track their progress, and self-regulate their own learning. With only a slight shift in…

Inspired by his ability to teach algebra to low-income and mostly African American and Latino urban students--and have them outscore the state averages for high-income and Caucasian students on standardized tests--Kadhir "Raja" Rajagopal, the 2011 California Teacher of the Year, provides you with a model for teaching that unleashes the…

Many students and teachers find creative writing to be too complex to manage. Teachers are unable to identify ways to help students develop necessary skills through creative writing. Teachers can make writing manageable by giving children opportunities that isolate, compartmentalize, and focus on specific aspects of the writer's craft. (Author/NQ)

Wouldn't your job be easier if students were just more interested in learning? Now, here's a book that will open your eyes to where the desire to learn actually comes from and what teachers can really do to activate it. Using stories from classroom teachers, counselors, administrators, and students, Bob Sullo explains why the desire to learn is…

This manual adapts the pedagogy used on the playing field, the studio, and the stage to the classroom. This method, called "Pep Talk," encourages teachers to: (1) create a need to know; (2) challenge students to know; (3) show how to know; (4) apply know-how; and (5) know how to inspire cooperation. Pep talk is the method coaches use when they…

The techniques used in a course on "French through the theater" emphasize the dramatic rather than realistic, authentic expression rather than authentic language, and the use of instruction to launch students on their own personal course of learning. (MSE)

Describes a lesson on different world ecosystems in which activities are based on the constructivist approach to teaching that encourages learners to control their own learning. Includes a sample grading rubric and national science education standards related to these activities. (KHR)

Describes how letters from the author's son acted as a major motivational technique to involve students in a remedial reading class. (DD)

Appealing to children of all learning abilities, this book provides fun and effective ways to strengthen reading fluency and comprehension; engaging and motivating activities that reinforce word-family concepts; 20 full-page, full-color transparencies of the poems; 17 pages of reproducibles; and independent, small group, whole group, and extension…

Starting with H.W. Seliger's distinction between second language learning strategies (abstract cognitive functions used to acquire knowledge) and learning tactics (activities learner uses to acquire language), presents the most important tactics and comments on which learner characteristics and teaching methods take advantage of them. Tactics…

Describes how the "Iliad" can be taught effectively as a soap opera. (MM)

In this article, the author compares teaching and learning to the maintenance of an old car that leaks oil and must constantly be "topped up." Learning is a complex process of taking in and leaking out. The retention of new information is constantly under assault by an array of personal and contextual factors, such as a lack of interest, fatigue,…

Keeping a journal of classroom experiences can help students express their understandings of the concepts they learn in school and how the lessons relate to their own lives. An eight-item reference list is provided. (Author)

Translation can be useful in teaching advanced students to make decisions about structure, assess the communicative consequences of those decisions, assess perceptions of language contrasts, and increase feelings for communicative appropriateness. Two methods are suggested: word-for-word or "spoof" translation, and back translation. (Author/MSE)